I was brought up on rock-‘n’-roll. It was sort of funny because I couldn’t get interested in anything else – I tried and tried but I couldn’t get into science…or mathematics, I just cut myself off from anything else there was to get interested in.
I loved the photographs of people wearing elaborate makeup and costumes – they really pulled at me inside. I was in that library every week for years, until I was about 13. I had a rich interior life, because I didn’t have much of a social life.
The [film] business is run by men, and they’re basically interested in their own species, and they’re not so interested in women belonging to the human race.
When I finally did stop and look at my life, I realized that I had done what I’d set out to do. In my pitiful little way, I had climbed the mountain I had chosen. And there I was, on top.
There’s the media-driven universe, in which the public perceives you in a superficial way. Then there’s the universe that you actually inhabit, where you have to get up even if you didn’t sleep so well, and you feel like crap and your face is swollen.
It is true that in this culture, they throw you out when you get older. I see it all the time, especially in my business. At my age, you’re playing somebody’s mother – and there aren’t even a lot of those roles!
One of my first role models was Eugene Lang, a wealthy businessman who went back to his elementary school in East Harlem and addressed the sixth-grade class. He looked out at that sea of faces and said, “If any of you wants to go to college, I will pay for it.”
Life is like cooking your masterpiece recipe. You have to get the right ingredients,have the right mixture and the right cooking time to reveal the PERFECT and DELICIOUS TASTE of your craft.
A person’s life is a journey, a road. Sometimes you go off the road and sometimes you stay on all the way through. But you are the only one on that road. It’s your road.
![Bette Midler Quote - The [film] business is run by men, and they’re basically interested in their own species, and they’re not so interested in women belonging to the human race.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/the-film-business-is-run-by-men-and-theyre-basical.jpg)
